North

Give us your thoughts . . .

We started this trip and will end it in the South of Europe, in places that call people from the world around and light them up and nourish and refresh them and thereafter inhabit their spirits and imaginations forever. The Tyrrhenian Coast of Italy . . . the Andalusian towns of Spain . . . the Sporadic Islands of Greece. Chafed by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, illuminated by the Rome of Augustus and the Athens of Pericles, garlanded with olive groves and vineyards to the horizon, these places beckon sun starved northerners to their villages and beaches on an ongoing annual basis.

And they are broke.

Now in the middle weeks of our Eurail spin we find ourselves on the cobbled streets and amid the burly narrow architecture of Amsterdam and Copenhagen and Stockholm and Helsinki. The iron and slush of winter have retreated as the summer solstice nears so we nod off and waken in the slanting light of the sun. And, we zip windbreakers over sweaters on our jaunts and brave the blustering wind and the rain showers when they come. These are tough and practical places where gear works, where plans are made and then fulfilled.

And they are thriving.

Just now the creditor North and the debtor South glower at each other across a fence of assumptions and approbation.

Heartless inhuman bankers!

Spendthrift spoiled brats!

In a couple of weeks we will arrive in Athens and hope not to encounter barricades and flaming trash cans in Syntagma Square.

Why is this? Why do the Northerners prosper and the Southerners borrow? Friends and travelers offer theories:

Religion. The South is Catholic; the North is Lutheran/Calvinist.

Weather. The northern winters enforce; the southern winters forgive.

Child rearing practices. The Greek parent loads on the affection and indulges every childish desire; the Finnish parent loads on the affection and lets their kid dress as s/he will . . . the conditions will do the teaching.

Natural resources. Iron ore and coal in the North; sunshine and soil in the South.

And etcetera.

Mind you, every generalization stubs its toe on reality. We strolled Stockholm the other day to marvel at both the stalwart architecture and the persistent examples of street-level whimsy . . . and hoped for a world where whimsy and stalwart can walk together.